God
A god is a supernatural being, worshipped by individuals and usually perceived as enormously powerful, and charged with responsibility for some aspect of nature or creation. Additionally, most benign gods have malign counterparts. Cultural views Human On Earth, gods range from those with names and specific portfolios to the omnipotent God of the Abrahamic faiths (Christianity, Judaism, and Islam), to spirits believed extant within aspects of nature (paganism of various sorts), to powerful alien beings. :"Mankind has no need for gods. We find the one quite adequate." – James T. Kirk Often, one being's god is another being's myth. Sometimes, one being's god is merely another being's powerful alien, as was the case of many of the gods worshipped on Earth. This was the case with Apollo and Kukulkan. ( ; ) Some of Earth's benign gods had malign counterparts, the most well-known of which was called the Devil. ( ) Bajoran The Bajoran people worship their Prophets as gods, although to most non-Bajorans, the Prophets are simply powerful beings referred to as "wormhole aliens". ( ) The malign counterpart to the Prophets were known to the Bajorans as the the Pah-wraiths. Some Bajorans believe these counterparts to be the true gods of Bajor. ( ) D'Arsay The mythology of the D'Arsay contained an epic drama involving Masaka, a sun goddess, and Korgano, a figure implied to be a moon god. ( ). :Although not explicitly stated, Picard's allusion to the two as seemingly equivalent to the sun and the moon in Earth's history indicates the likelihood that the D'Arsay are polytheistic, or believe in more than a single god, much like the ancient Egyptians of Earth. The Dominion In the Dominion, the Jem'Hadar and Vorta view the Founders as their gods, whereas most other species see them as merely changeling aliens. This view is genetically engineered into their design to ensure absolute loyalty. ( ) The Edo The Edo of Rubicun III worshipped an orbiting lifeform as their god. This lifeform considered the Edo its children, protecting and caring for them. ( ) Klingon The Klingons at one time had gods, but according to legend, the gods were slain by the Klingon warriors they had created (led by Kortar, the first Klingon) as "they were more trouble than they were worth." ( ; ) Vulcan No Vulcan god or gods were named, there have been some references to them. Captain Picard once noted that, according to Vulcan mythology, the psionic resonator was destroyed by "the gods," although whether this referred to ancient Vulcans gods, or whether it was simply part of an allegorical tale is unclear. ( ) USS Voyager During the late 2370s, the became trapped in orbit around a planet, where time on the surfaces moved at an accelerated rate. Some of the planet's ancient inhabitants were able to see the starship in the sky, and began to regard it as a deity or god, even setting aside a specific fruit which was only to be offered to the new deity, which they initially called the "groundshaker." ( ) Godly Encounters In 2287, Sybok began the final leg in his quest to find God, whom he believed was located at Sha Ka Ree in the galactic core. It is however discovered that Sybok's god, though seemingly well versed in the Gods of the Universe, was in fact a malevolent entity who, himself, was on a quest to obtain a starship and leave his confinement. ( ) :The Human image portrayed by the "God of Sha Ka Ree" from ''Star Trek V was portrayed by actor George Murdock. The image of the Andorian God, as well as the other two unidentified Gods (shown), were among the images proposed to represent the "many faces of God" in Star Trek V. These images, however, did not make it into the final production of the movie, but were included in the Special Features section of the Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (Special Edition) DVD.'' In 2369, Q claimed to Picard that he was in fact God when Picard was having a near death experience after a near-fatal wounding. Despite Q's admittedly all-powerful nature within our plane of existence, Picard retorted, "Q, I refuse to believe that I am dead and that you are God... the Universe is not so poorly designed!" (Given the fact that this occurred while Picard was in a near-death state, however, it is possible that this was all a hallucination and Q never really made such a claim.) ( ) On Brax, Q was referred to as "The God of Lies". ( ) Appendices Additional References * ** "Justice" ** "Who Watches The Watchers" See also *List of gods Background Gene Roddenberry was known to be a Humanistic Atheist or Agnostic and debunking both Human and alien gods and superstitions was a regular theme in his stories. Episodes such as , , Star Trek: Phase II: "In Thy Image", and , showed a god is actually shown to be either an alien or a machine (or both). In an interview with StarTrekAnimated.com, scriptwriter David Gerrold complained that, "when in doubt, Gene always had Kirk get into a fight with God." On the other hand, in the TOS episode , the M5 computer credited God as a source of the illegality of murder, and Kirk later repeated that credit. de:Gott God